These names, like the names of all those who have had their lives ended before them, must be added to the never-ending list of black people killed at the hands of the police.

What's followed in Hackney is an outcry of sorrow and grief. However, there is also an increasing naked anger and cry for justice, demonstrated through the spontaneous protests that have erupted in the days following.

Austerity effects

But what cannot be ignored is the effect of austerity. In the drive to overcome the most recent crisis of capitalism, the austerity agenda has ushered in cuts to 'non-mandatory' services that gave young people like Rashan the help and support they may need.

In 2011 youth services in Hackney went from 181 staffed posts to 90, with a £10 million cut to their budget. In 2017 a further £4 million has been shaved off the already slender budget, with youth services provision at an all-time low across the capital.

The Socialist Party says these cuts are having a dire effect on our young people and their ability to access opportunities away from crime and contact with the police. We demand fully funded council services for all and an end to all cuts.

Investigations

Rashan's death will be investigated by the IPCC. However there is little belief in working class communities and the trade union movement that its 'investigation' will provide the justice we all demand.

The Socialist Party demands an immediate end to police harassment, including the use of stop and search. We call for a full, open and democratic public enquiry, involving community groups and the trade union movement, to represent the views and needs of working class communities.

We demand full democratic community control of police policy and hiring. We call for the Corbyn-led Labour Party to put pressure on the Trade Union Congress to tackle the issue of institutional racism in the police force, making the link between austerity and structural racism.

We call for disbanding of the IPCC and the creation of a democratically accountable investigatory body made up of trade unionists and community groups.

But ultimately, as Malcolm X and Kwame Ture pointed out, "you can't have capitalism without racism." In order to end police abuse and wider racism in society, we need to end the system which benefits from it.

That means linking the fight for demands like these to the need to take the power away from the capitalists, and build a new society based on public ownership, democratic planning and solidarity: a socialist society.

This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 8 August 2017 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.